Pictures of my life in a thousand words . . . more or less.

Mini-daffodils and linty spoons

Every night when I clock out from the website where I work, I think, “Oh, I should blog.” That is immediately followed by, “Oh, I’ll blog tomorrow.”

And tomorrow? No time. I sleep. I run errands. I start working. Split shifts kind of manage to make you feel like you’re working all the time. I start at noon, I end at midnight . . . and the hours between shifts are consumed by cooking dinner, cleaning the kitchen, exercising (on very disciplined days), hanging out with my husband, reading and that sort of thing. Never blogging though.

So tonight, I’m here even though it’s 1:30 a.m. For your reading pleasure, I offer a haphazard bunch of paragraphs.

My husband didn’t work today and the kids were home. We slept in, then he stayed home with the kids while I went shopping. I went in this order to my favorite stores: Bed, Bath & Beyond (to see if Yankee candles were put on 75% clearance–they were not), Marshall’s (to buy a cheap Yankee candle for the master bathroom), Target (to buy a cable for my new computer and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t know I needed until I saw it) and then Fred Meyer (only the Best Grocery Store Ever).

At Fred Meyer, I picked up eight pansies, a lupine, a columbine, mini-daffodils about to bloom and four “Steppables”, some kind of plant resistant to kids stepping on them. After I put the groceries away, my daughter and I ripped the dead petunias from the pots and replaced them with the assortment of new flowers.

While this sounded like a fun project, it wasn’t all that much fun because I realized that most of my garden tools have disappeared yet again. It’s a seasonable problem I have. I buy hand-tools and rakes and shovels and by the next season, they have vanished. My husband suggested that perhaps the raccoons are to blame. Maybe they have a well-stocked tool-shed somewhere nearby.

Soon, I will new tools because it’s practically spring! The big question is this: will my lilacs bloom this year? I pruned them last spring and then some guys we hired to clean up our yard pruned them again. A little too viciously, if you ask me. I’m just hoping for blooms this year.

*

Yesterday, my husband and I went to the local independent theater to see a movie. I worried out loud that we were running late and he said, “It’s Valentine’s Day. Who’s going to be seeing a depressing movie like ‘The Messenger’ today?” Well, I’d tell you but I am busy snagging the only two adjacent seats left in the theater.

The movie itself was good–rated R for good reason though (sex, nudity, language). It’s about the men in the military who notify the next of kin that their soldier has been killed in action. (I liked “The Hurt Locker” more, but that’s neither here nor there.) This movie’s screenplay was nominated for Best Screenplay and Woody Harrelson was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

And the popcorn at this independent theater has real butter. I know. I KNOW!

*

On Saturday, my 11-year old participated in lacrosse camp all day. While he and my husband were gone I decided to clean the 11-year old’s room. While he has “cleaned” it himself recently, it had been awhile since I’d sorted through his clothes and toys and books. It was time to purge, sort and organize. Bonus: I found several missing teaspoons covered in lint.

I worked for three grueling hours. I was grimy and exhausted when I finished.

He came home from the camp, appeared in his doorway and said, “Did I give you permission to clean my room?”

Now that is gratitude.

Fortunately for him, I cleaned it for my own sake and not his. Plus, I think he was kidding. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt because he’s such a good kid.

*

Do you ever wish you could give unsolicited advice to people who need to hear what you think? But it would be completely inappropriate so you can’t say anything?

*

When I watch the Olympics, I am pretty sure I could do that. I could totally skate the short track. And a triple toe loop? No problem. What is it about the Olympics that makes me utterly delusional? My back is sore from planting flowers in a few pots.

*

I haven’t forgotten that I promised to talk memoirs. That will involve a lot of links, so maybe tomorrow. (Ha ha! See how I lie to myself?) Really, though, maybe tomorrow I’ll get to that.

In the meantime, tell me this.

Do you read memoirs?

If so, what’s your favorite?

p.s. We had only a light dusting of snow this year. Some blame a particular weather pattern but I know the real reason. For the first year in our twelve years here, I bought two snow shovels. Sorry. And you’re welcome.

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10 thoughts on “Mini-daffodils and linty spoons”

Yes, I occasionally read memoirs. My favorite has been “First Lady from Plains” by Rosalynn Carter. I’ve never been a fan of her husband’s by any means but her writing style caught me early on in the book and I really enjoyed it.

Heads up. It doesn’t get better. And he was serious. My 18 y/o ds HATES when I clean his room. I was home sick, so while they were at church on Sunday, I made his bed, gathered up his dirty dishes and emptied his trash can. Then I put a valentine on his pillow.

I like to read memoirs once in awhile. I enjoyed “Running With Scissors” by Augusten Burroughs, and his brother John Elder Robinson wrote a book about his life with Asperger’s Syndrome that I thought was really good. I also really liked The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Have you ever read the series by Dave Pelzer that starts with A Boy Called It. It is his story of the horrible abuse by his mother when he was a child and how he survived. It is very sad, but inspiring.

Fred Meyer is great. It was even better when they had that little diner built in… but you can’t beat them for having what you need. We have a couple of really great ones where we are. And they’re almost always by a Les Schwab… I wonder what’s up with that?